Mirrors
by LizzieHouse
Summary: A town is plagued by Bloody Mary, but she only has a certain type of victim. Will Maria Winchester's dark secret cause her to be the next target? Based on the Bloody Mary episode of Supernatural.
1. Chapter 1

Sam Winchester is asleep in the front seat of the Impala, slumped against the window. He's been out for about an hour. He hasn't had a good night's sleep in weeks, so his brother and sister let him rest, even though they've reached their destination. But his sleep becomes fitful. Dean and Maria share a worried look in the rearview mirror before Maria reaches over the front seat and shakes her baby brother awake.

"Sammy, wake up," she says a bit loudly. Sam wakes up, confused, then sits up and looks around. He looks at the large building Dean has parked in front of.

"I take it I was having a nightmare."

"Yeah," Dean replies. "Another one."

"Hey, at least I got some sleep."

"You know," Maria begins, using the almost motherly tone that Sam has come to expect from her in situations where his wellbeing is concerned, "sooner or later we're gonna have to talk about this."

"Are we here?" Sam asks, ignoring her.

"Yup," Dean answers. "Welcomes to Toledo, Ohio."

Maria picks up the newspaper off of the seat beside her and hands it to Sam, pointing to where Steven Shoemaker's obituary is circled. He reads it quickly and looks back up at his older siblings.

"So what do you two think really happened to this guy?"

"That's what we're gonna find out," Maria smiled, opening the back door of the Impala. "Let's go."

Sam, Dean, and Maria climb out of the car and head up to the hospital they were parked in front of. After asking for directions, they are directed to room 144, the morgue. As they enter the room, they see two desks. The empty desk has a nameplate reading 'Dr. D. Feiklowicz' while the other desk is occupied by the young male morgue technician.

"Hey," the technician greets, glancing at Sam and Dean quickly before looking Maria up and down.

"Hey," Maria says, winking at the morgue tech.

"Can I help you?" he asks, not taking his eyes off of Maria.

"Yeah," Dean states, trying to take control of the situation. "We're the, uh…med students."

"Sorry?" The morgue tech tears his eyes away from Maria and looks at Dean with some distaste.

"Oh, Doctor—" Dean starts, stumbling over the doctor's name, "—Figlavitch didn't tell you? We talked to him on the phone. He, uh, we're from Ohio State. He's supposed to show us the Shoemaker corpse. It's for our paper."

"Well, I'm sorry, he's at lunch," the morgue tech replies with a slight sneer.

"Oh well he said, uh—" Dean falters, then regains his composure, "—oh, well, you know, it doesn't matter. You don't mind just showing us the body, do you?"

"Sorry, I can't," he says. "Doc will be back in an hour. You can wait for him if you want."

"An hour? Ooh. We gotta be heading back to Columbus by then," Dean says, looking at Sam and Maria.

"Yeah," Sam says. Maria nods.

"Uh, look, man, this paper's like half our grade," Dean tries to reason with him, "so if you don't mind helping us out—"

"Uh, look, man…no," the morgue tech says mockingly, turning his attention back to Maria, waiting for her to offer him something he can't refuse. Dean turns around to his siblings.

"I'm gonna hit him in his face I swear," Dean mumbles. Maria puts a calming hand on Dean's shoulder as she undoes the top two buttons on her plaid shirt. She steps up to the morgue tech's desk and leans over it, smiling seductively.

"Look, we drove a really long way," she says softly, holding her right arm against her chest in such a way that it enhances her cleavage, and using her left hand to gently stroke his hand on the desk. "And we really need to see that body. You wouldn't want me to get a bad grade, now would you?"

She leans in closer to his face, inches away. The morgue tech's breath catches a bit and he shakes his head. Maria smiles and stands up straight, leading the way to the morgue door, buttoning her shirt back up. The tech stands up slowly and unlocks it for them, leading them inside. Dean looks proudly at his sister, happy that she was able to get them into the morgue so easily. Sam, however, feels a little sad that his own sister had to use her body to get what they needed.

Maria didn't really think twice about showing off a bit of cleavage. If you got it, flaunt it, she used to say. Besides, she learned from a fairly young age that she could use her body to get what she wanted. Her father had even taught her the trick with the arm to enhance her bust; it sickened him to have to tell his only little girl that she needed to use her body to get what they needed. But he only did what he had to do, and he was right, anyway. Men are pigs. Maria already knew that much. And she didn't really see anything wrong with using that fact to her advantage. But don't get her wrong: she's a good girl, really. She's still a virgin, and she didn't seem to be in any hurry to change that small fact about herself, much to the bewilderment of Dean and the pride of John and Sam. Oh, she'd been propositioned for sex in the past, and sometimes she'd even thought about accepting. But that wasn't her style. And she had her reasons.

"Now the newspaper said his daughter found him," Sam says as the morgue tech pulls back the sheet over Shoemaker's face. "She said his eyes were bleeding."

"More than that," the tech replies. "They practically liquefied."

"Any sign of a struggle?" Dean asks. "Maybe somebody did it to him?"

"Nope. Besides the daughter, he was all alone."

"What's the official cause of death?" asks Maria. The morgue tech falters a bit before answering.

"Ah…Doc's not sure. He's thinking massive stroke, maybe an aneurysm? Something burst up in there, that's for sure."

"What do you mean?" Sam inquires.

"Intense cerebral bleeding. This guy had more blood in his skull than anyone I've ever seen."

"The eyes; what would cause something like that?" Maria probes.

"Capillaries can burst. See a lot of bloodshot eyes with stroke victims."

"Yeah?" Dean says. "You ever see exploding eyeballs?"

"That's a first for me, but hey, I'm not the doctor."

"Hey," Dean begins, knowing he might be pushing his luck with this guy, "think we could take a look at that police report? You know for, uh…our paper."

"I'm not really supposed to show you that," the morgue tech answers, looking longingly at Maria. She rolls her eyes and undoes the top few buttons of her shirt again. After staring at her cleavage for a few seconds, he nods.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam, Dean, and Maria leave the morgue and walk down the stairs on the outside of the hospital. Sam speaks to his older siblings.

"Might not be one of ours. Might just be some freak medical thing."

"How many times in Dad's long and varied career," Maria begins, "has it actually been a freak medical thing and not some sign of an awful supernatural death?"

"Uh, almost never," Sam replies.

"Exactly," Dean finishes.

"All right," Sam says. "Let's go talk to the daughter."

The Winchesters pile into the Impala and drive to the Shoemaker house, where they are having the funeral for Steven Shoemaker. They look out of place amongst the mourners all dressed in black. Their green and brown layered clothing makes them stand out.

"Feel like we're underdressed," Dean remarks quietly as they keep walking toward the back of the house. A man in the backyard points the Winchesters to Donna and Lily Shoemaker, who are sitting with two of their friends. The siblings approach them, Dean in the lead.

"You must be Donna, right?"

"Yeah," one of the older girls replies sadly.

"Hi," Sam tells her awkwardly. "Uh—we're really sorry."

"Thank you."

"I'm Maria, this is Dean, and that's Sam. We worked with your dad," Maria says. Donna looks at her friend, then back at Maria, Dean, and Sam.

"You did?"

"Yeah," Dean responds. "This whole thing. I mean, a stroke."

"I don't think she really wants to talk about this right now," her friend snapped, but Donna stopped her.

"It's okay. I'm okay."

"Were there any symptoms?" Maria inquired. "Dizziness? Migraines?"

"No," Donna replies, but her younger sister turns around.

"That's because it wasn't a stroke."

"Lily, don't say that."

"What?" Sam asks, curious.

"I'm sorry, she's just upset."

"No," Lily insists. "It happened because of me."

"Sweetie, it didn't." Donna soothes.

"Lily," Sam says, getting down on Lily's eye level. "Why would you say something like that?"

"Right before he died, I said it."

"You said what?" Maria asks, following Sam's lead and getting down on Lily's eye level.

"Bloody Mary, three times in the bathroom mirror," Lily replies guiltily. "She took his eyes, that's what she does."

"That's not why Dad died," Donna tries to console her sister. "This isn't your fault."

"I think your sister's right, Lily," Dean says as Sam and Maria stand up again. "There's no way it could have been Bloody Mary. Your dad didn't say it, did he?"

"No, I don't think so," Lily replies, almost relieved.

Sam, Dean, and Maria make their way up the stairs of the Shoemaker home, heading toward the bathroom where Mr. Shoemaker died. Sam pushes the door open and they all look down. There is still a bit of dried blood in the cracks of the tile floor.

"The Bloody Mary legend…Dad every find any evidence that it was a real thing?" Sam asks as they walk into the bathroom.

"Not that we know of," Dean answers.

"I mean, everywhere else all over the country, kids will play Bloody Mary," Sam muses, stooping down to touch the dried blood. He stands back up and walks to his siblings.

"Yeah, well, maybe everywhere else it's just a story," Maria begins, inspecting the medicine cabinet mirror, "but here it's actually happening."

"The place where the legend began?" Dean asks, walking over to look at the mirror as well. Maria just shrugs as she opens the medicine cabinet.

"But according to the legend, the person who says B—" Sam pauses, seeing his face in the medicine cabinet mirror that is now facing him. He closes it. "The person who says you-know-what gets it. But here—"

"Shoemaker gets it instead," Dean finishes.

"Right," Sam says.

"Never heard anything like that before," Maria adds. "Still, the guy did die in front of the mirror, and the daughter's right. The way the legend goes, you-know-who scratches your eyes out."

"It's worth checking in to," Sam says with finality. Maria and Dean nod, and the three Winchesters walk out of the bathroom.

"What are you doing up here?" a woman that the siblings recognize as one of Donna's friends says, her arms crossed.

"We—we, had to go to the bathroom," Dean stammers.

"Who are you?"

"Like we said downstairs," Maria starts, "we worked with Donna's dad."

"He was a day trader or something. He worked by himself."

"No, I know, I meant—" Maria tries, but the friend cuts her off.

"And all those weird questions downstairs, what was that? So you tell me what's going on, or I start screaming."

"Oh, will you?" Maria asks, taking a menacing step toward the girl, but Sam grabs his sister's arm and pulls her back toward him.

"All right, all right," Sam says, keeping a hand on his sister's shoulder. "We think something happened to Donna's dad."

"Yeah, a stroke," the friend says with a sneer.

"That's not a sign of a typical stroke," Sam continues. "We think it might be something else."

"Like what?"

"Honestly?" Sam replies. "We don't know yet. But we don't want it to happen to anyone else. That's the truth."

"So, if you're gonna scream, go right ahead," Maria mocks, narrowing her eyes at the girl. Maria, for the most part, has never really gotten along very well with girls around her age. She finds guys easier to get along with. But she grew up with guys, so that's only normal. Or so she thinks, anyway.

"Who are you, cops?" the girl says, ignoring Maria's comment. Sam looks over his shoulder at Dean, who speaks up.

"Something like that."

"I'll tell you what. Here," Sam says, letting go of Maria to reach into his pocket for a piece of paper and a pen. He writes down his cellphone number and hands it to the girl. "If you think of anything, you or your friends notice anything strange, out of the ordinary…just give us a call."

Maria, Dean, and Sam walk down the hallway and down the stairs. Once they are outside the house and out of earshot of the mourners inside, Sam smacks Maria on the back of the head.

"Ow!" she exclaims, turning to glare at her brother. "What the hell was that for?"

"Why did you have to act like such a bitch to that girl?" came her little brother's reply.

"She was a bitch first," Maria grumbles, rubbing the back of her head. Dean chuckles to himself and the three Winchesters get back into the Impala, heading to the library to begin their research.


	3. Chapter 3

Maria, Dean, and Sam walk into the library. It's the late afternoon, but it's already fairly dark outside. Dean walks ahead of his younger siblings, then turns around to talk to them, walking backwards.

"All right, say Bloody Mary really is haunting this town. There's gonna be some sort of proof—like a local woman who died nasty."

"Yeah, but a legend this widespread, it's hard," Sam replies. "I mean, there's like 50 versions of who she actually is. One story says she's a witch, another says she's a mutilated bride, there's a lot more."

"All right," Maria begins. "So what are we supposed to be looking for?"

"Every version's got a few things in common," Sam responds as the siblings begin to hunt down the computers. "It's always a woman named Mary, and she always dies right in front of a mirror. So we've gotta search local newspapers—public records as far back as they go. See if we can find a Mary who fits the bill."

"Well, that sounds annoying." Dean declares. Maria nods in agreement.

"No it won't be so bad, as long as we…" Sam starts. He, Dean, and Maria look at the computers. All of them have 'Out of Order' signs on them. Sam chuckles. "I take it back. This will be very annoying."

* * *

Sam, Dean, and Maria had been back in their motel room, hard at work looking over the newspapers, for a good three hours by the time Sam actually falls asleep. He is still fully clothed and on top of the blankets, old newspapers scattered on and around him on the bed. His sleep becomes fitful, and he whimpers a bit in his sleep.

"Sam!" Maria shouts. He jolts awake, a few of the newspapers fluttering off of him.

"Why'd you let me fall asleep?"

"Don't look at me. That was all Maria," Dean defends himself. Maria gives Dean a dirty look before turning back to Sam consolingly, trying to speak to him. Dean cuts her off, his curiosity getting the best of him. "So what did you dream about?"

"Lollipops and candy canes," Sam replies sarcastically.

"Yeah, sure," Dean is having none or it.

"Did you two find anything?" Sam asks, trying to avoid the subject of his dreams.

"Oh, besides a whole new level of frustration?" Maria says as Sam sits up on the bed. "No. We've looked at everything. A few local women, a Laura and a Catherine committed suicide in front of a mirror, and a giant mirror fell on a guy named Dave, but uh, no Mary."

"Maybe we just haven't found it yet," Sam decides, falling back on the bed again.

"We've also been searching for strange deaths in the area," Dean begins, "you know…eyeball bleeding, that sort of thing. There's nothing. Whatever's happening here, maybe it just ain't Mary."

Sam's cellphone rings on the nightstand. He reaches for it and looks at the caller ID. He answers it.

"Hello?" Sam says into the receiver. Dean and Maria wait until his conversation is over before asking him who it was.

"It's Charlie," Sam says as if it's obvious.

"Charlie?" Maria asks. "Who the hell is Charlie?"

"That girl you wanted to beat to death," Sam replies. A look of comprehension comes across Maria and Dean's faces. "She wants to meet us at the park. Sounds like she might be in trouble."

* * *

"And they found her on the bathroom floor," Charlie says through her tears. "And her—her eyes. They were gone."

"I'm sorry," Sam consoles.

"And she said it," Charlie continues, wiping at her eyes. Sam, Dean, and Maria look at each other. "I heard her say it. But it couldn't be because of that. I'm insane, right?"

"No, you're not insane," Dean says simply.

"Oh God, that makes me feel so much worse," Charlie sobs.

"Look. We think something's happening here," Sam starts. "Something that can't be explained."

"And we're gonna stop it, but we could use your help," Maria finishes with a small smile, already over whatever her past problems were with this girl. She honestly couldn't remember now. This happens to her often. She meets a girl around her age, fights with her over practically nothing, and then forgets about it almost immediately, especially if the girl needs her help.

* * *

Dean, Maria, and Sam wait outside the window of the newest victim's bedroom. Charlie is inside, locking the bedroom door and opening up the window. Sam crawls through first, then Maria hands him the duffel bag she's carrying and crawls through the window herself, followed by Dean. Sam puts the bag on the bed and starts going through it.

"What did you tell her mom?" Sam asks curiously.

"Just that I needed some time alone with Jill's pictures and things," Charlie says as Sam pulls the digital camera out of the bag and Maria shuts the curtains. "I hate lying to her."

"Trust us, this is for the greater good," Dean states. "Hit the lights."

"What are you guys looking for?" Charlie asks as she turns off the lights.

"We'll let you know as soon as we find it," Maria tells her, walking over to her brothers. Sam has the digital camera ready, but is holding it out to Dean.

"Hey, night vision?" he says. Dean turns on the night vision setting for him, and Sam points the camera at Dean and Maria, checking the setting. "Perfect."

"Do we look like Paris Hilton?" Dean asks, as he and Maria both strike a pose, facing away from the camera and turning their heads in unison to look at it seductively. Sam shakes his head in exasperation as Dean and Maria giggle.

"So I don't get it," Sam says, returning to business. He opens the victim's closet and begins filming the mirror hanging on the inside of the door. "I mean…the first victim didn't summon Mary, and the second victim did. How's she choosing them?"

"Beats me," Dean says. He and Maria stay in the bedroom with Charlie.

"I want to know why Jill said it in the first place," Maria says, looking at the girl.

"It was just a joke," she replies in a small voice.

"Yeah well somebody's gonna say it again," Dean says. "It's just a matter of time."

"Hey," Sam calls. He's in the bathroom connected to the bedroom, filming around the bathroom mirror when he notices something dripping out from behind the mirror. "There's a black light in the trunk, right?"

Sam carries the mirror out of the bathroom and lays it upside down on Jill's bed. Maria stands outside and hands Dean the black light before heaving herself back in through the window. Sam peels the brown paper off the back of the mirror and Dean shines the black light over the back of the mirror. A smudged handprint and the written words 'Gary Bryman' can be seen clearly.

"Gary Bryman?" Charlie asks, confused.

"You know who that is?" Maria asks her.

"No," Charlie replies, shaking her head.


	4. Chapter 4

Maria sits on a park bench with Charlie while Dean stands behind them, leaning on the bench for support, as they wait for Sam to come out of the library with the info on the mysterious Gary Bryman. Sam walks up behind them and they turn around to listen.

"So, Gary Bryman was an 8-year-old boy. Two years ago he was killed in a hit and run. The car was described as a black Toyota Camry. But nobody got the plates or saw the driver."

"Oh my God," Charlie says, putting her hand to her mouth in shock.

"What?" Maria asks, concerned.

"Jill drove that car," she replies.

"We need to get back to your friend Donna's house," Dean says suddenly.

* * *

Sam, Dean, and Maria are huddling around the bathroom mirror at Donna's. Charlie had convinced Donna to stay downstairs with her as the Winchesters did their job taking the mirror off of its hinges to get a better look at the message on the back. Using the black light once again, they see a handprint and a name.

"Linda Shoemaker," Sam reads, looking up at his siblings, who stare back in slight horror.

"Why are you asking me this?" Donna asks, upset that the Winchesters were asking her such a heavy question out of the blue.

"Look, we're sorry," Sam begins, "but it's important."

"Yeah. Linda's my mom, okay?" Donna replies, starting to get a little angry. "She overdosed on sleeping pills, it was an accident, and that's it. I think you should leave."

"Now Donna, just listen," Dean starts.

"Get out of my house!" Donna shrieks, running upstairs. Charlie turns to the siblings before asking the horrifying question.

"Oh my God. Do you really think her dad could've killed her mom?"

"Maybe," Maria replies, knowing that he probably did kill Donna and Lily's mother.

"I think I should stick around," Charlie decides.

"All right," Maria says, then cautions her. "Whatever you do, don't—"

"Believe me, I won't say it."

* * *

Back at their motel room, Dean sits at the little table on the laptop with Maria looking over his shoulder while Sam looks at some things tacked to the wall.

"Wait, wait, wait," Maria says quickly, "you're doing a nationwide search?"

"Yep," Dean replies. "The NCIC, the FBI database—at this point any Mary who died in front of a mirror is good enough for me."

"But if she's haunting the town," Sam begins, turning around to face his siblings, "she should have died in the town."

"I'm telling you guys there's nothing local, I've checked," Dean states. "So unless you've got a better idea—"

"The way Mary's choosing her victims, it seems like there's a pattern," Sam says slowly.

"I know," Maria retorts. "I was thinking the same thing."

"With Mr. Shoemaker and Jill's hit and run," Sam continues.

"Both had secrets where people died," Dean determines.

"Right," Sam says. "I mean there's a lot of folklore about mirrors—that they reveal all your lies, all your secrets, that they're a true reflection of your soul, which is why it's bad luck to break them."

"Right, right," Dean continues. "So maybe if you've got a secret, I mean like a really nasty one where someone died, then Mary sees it, and punishes you for it."

"Whether you're the one that summoned her or not," Maria concludes.

"Take a look at this," Dean tells his siblings, showing them the picture of a woman lying face down by a mirror in a puddle of blood. He prints out another picture of a handprint and the letters "Tre" written in blood and hands it to Maria. Sam looks over her shoulder to see it better.

"Looks like the same handprint," Maria notices.

"Her name was Mary Worthington—an unsolved murder in Fort Wayne, Indiana," Dean tells them. The Winchester siblings look at each other and they know where they need to go next.

* * *

"I was on the job 35 years—detective for most of that," the older man at the police station in Fort Wayne tells the Winchesters. "Now everybody packs it in with a few loose ends, but the Mary Worthington murder—that one still gets me."

"What exactly happened?" Dean asks.

"You three said you were reporters?" the aged detective asks.

"We know Mary was 19, lived by herself," Sam replies. "We know she won a few local beauty contests, dreamt of getting out of Indiana, being an actress. And we know the night of March 29th someone broke into her apartment and murdered her, cut out her eyes with a knife."

"That's right," the detective answers with finality.

"See, sir," Maria begins, "when we asked you what happened, we wanted to know what you think happened."

The detective pulls some files out of a file cabinet and looks around to make sure that nobody is watching him but the Winchesters.

"Technically I'm not supposed to have a copy of this," he says, opening the file to the picture Dean had shown Sam and Maria earlier. "Now see that there? T-R-E?"

"Yeah," Dean replies.

"I think Mary was trying to spell out the name of her killer," the detective declares quietly.

"You know who it was?" Maria questions.

"Not for sure. But there was a local man, a surgeon—Trevor Sampson," the detective replies, pulling out a picture of the man he named. "And I think he cut her up good."

"Now why would he do something like that?" Sam asks.

"Her diary mentioned a man that she was seeing. She called him by his initial, "T". Well, her last entry, she was gonna tell "T"'s wife about their affair."

"Yeah but how do you know it was Sampson who killed her?" Dean inquires.

"It's hard to say, but the way her eyes were cut out…it was almost professional."

"But you could never prove it?" Maria probes.

"No. No prints, no witnesses. He was meticulous."

"Is he still alive?" Dean asks.

"Nope," the detective replies, sitting down with a sigh. "If you ask me, Mary spent her last living moments trying to expose this guy's secret. But she never could."

"Where's she buried?" Sam questions.

"She wasn't. She was cremated."

"What about that mirror?" Maria points to the one in the picture. "It's not in some evidence lockup somewhere, is it?"

"Ah, no. it was returned to Mary's family a long time ago."

"You have the names of her family by any chance?" Sam asks.

* * *

Maria Winchester is sitting in the back of the Impala, leaning on the front seat between her brothers, as they speed down the road. She is on her cell phone, trying to track down Mary's mirror.

"Oh really? Ah that's too bad, Mr. Worthington. I would have paid a lot for that mirror. Okay, well maybe next time. All right, thanks," she hangs up with an annoyed expression.

"So?" Dean asks.

"So that was Mary's brother. The mirror was in the family for years, until he sold it one week ago to a store called Estate Antiques. A store in Toldeo."

"So wherever the mirror goes, that's where Mary goes?" Dean questions.

"Her spirit's definitely tied up with it somehow," Sam declares.

"Isn't there an old superstition that says mirrors can capture spirits?" Dean realizes.

"Yeah there is," Sam replies. "Yeah, when someone would die in a house people would cover up the mirrors so the ghost wouldn't get trapped."

"So Mary dies in front of a mirror," Maria begins, "and it draws in her spirit."

"Yeah," Sam answers, "but how could she move through like a hundred different mirrors?"

"I don't know," Dean starts, "but if the mirror is the source, I say we find it and smash it."

"Yeah," Maria says, not completely convinced, "I don't know, maybe."

Sam's cell phone rings. He answers it without looking to see who called. When he hears the frantic voice on the other end begging for help, his eyes widen in horror.

"Charlie?"


	5. Chapter 5

Sam, Dean, and Maria are back in their motel room in Toledo. Charlie is sitting on the bed with her head on her knees, covering her eyes. Maria rubs small circles on her back to calm her while Sam and Dean close the curtains and cover all of the mirrors in the room with sheets.

"Hey, hey it's okay," Maria soothes, still rubbing circles on Charlie's back as Sam comes over to them to try to calm her, too.

"Hey, you can open up your eyes, Charlie. It's okay, all right?" Sam says quietly. Charlie looks up slowly before he continues. "Now listen. You're gonna stay right here on this bed, and you're not gonna look at glass, or anything else that has a reflection, okay? And as long as you do that, she cannot get you."

"But I can't keep that up forever," Charlie worries. "I'm gonna die, aren't I?"

"No. No. Not anytime soon." Maria says with conviction as Dean comes over to sit on the bed with her and Charlie.

"All right, Charlie," Dean says, not wanting to play the bad guy. "We need to know what happened."

"We were in the bathroom. Donna said it."

"That's not what we're talking about," Dean clarifies. "Something happened, didn't it? In your life…a secret…where someone got hurt. Can you tell us about it?"

"I had this boyfriend. I loved him. But he kind of scared me too, you know? And one night, at his house, we got in this fight. Then I broke up with him, and he got upset, and he said he needed me and he loved me, and he said 'Charlie, if you walk out that door right now, I'm gonna kill myself.' And you know what I said? I said 'Go ahead.' And I left. How could I say that? How could I leave him like that? I just…I didn't believe him, you know? I should have," Charlie finishes, tears leaking down her face. She puts her face back on her knees and starts to cry again.

* * *

It's raining when they finally calm Charlie down enough to leave her alone and head toward Estate Antiques. Maria sits in the back of the Impala quietly, listening to her brothers talk.

"You know her boyfriend killing himself, that's not really Charlie's fault," Dean states.

"You know as well as I do spirits don't exactly see shades of gray, Dean," Sam says matter-of-factly. "Charlie had a secret, someone died, that's good enough for Mary."

"I guess," Dean replies, unconvinced.

"You know, I've been thinking," Maria says suddenly. "It might not be enough just to smash that mirror."

"Why, what do you mean?" Dean asks her, glancing at her in the rearview mirror.

"Well, Mary's hard to pin down, right?" Maria explains. "I mean she moves around from mirror to mirror, so who's to say that she's not just gonna keep hiding in them forever?"

"So maybe we should try to pin her down, you know," Sam was thinking along the same lines as his sister. "Summon her to her mirror and then smash it."

"Well, how do you know that's going to work?" Dean asks.

"We don't," Maria replies. "Not for sure."

"Well, who's gonna summon her?" Dean asks seriously.

"I will," Sam says plainly. "She'll come after me."

"You know what, that's it," Dean says, pulling the Impala over to the side of the dark road. "This is about Jessica, isn't it? You think that's your dirty little secret, that you killed her somehow? Sam, this has got to stop, man. I mean, the nightmares and calling her name out in the middle of the night—it's gonna kill you. Now listen to me—it wasn't your fault. If you wanna blame something, then blame the thing that killed her. Or hell, why don't you take a swing at me or Maria? I mean, we're the ones that dragged you away from her in the first place."

"I don't blame either of you," Sam says calmly.

"Well, you shouldn't blame yourself, because there's nothing you could've done," Maria tells him.

"I could've warned her," Sam replies.

"About what?" Dean asks. "You didn't know what was gonna happen!"

"And besides," Maria continues, "all of this isn't a secret, I mean, we know all about it. It's not gonna work with Mary anyway."

"No you don't," Sam says simply.

"We don't what?" Dean and Maria ask in unison.

"You don't know all about it. I haven't told you everything."

"What are you talking about?" Dean asks, suspicious.

"Well it wouldn't really be a secret if I told you, would it?" Sam replies simply, but Maria puts a hand on his shoulder before speaking.

"Look. Whatever you think you did to cause Jessica's death is nothing compared to…well, compared to what my secret is. So I'm going in there. And I'm gonna summon Mary. And that's just how it's gonna be," she finishes with conviction. Dean turns to look at her, surprised.

"No," he says after staring at her for a few seconds. "I don't like it. It's not gonna happen, forget it."

"Dean, that girl back there is going to die unless we do something about it," Maria says, begging him to see reason. "And you know what? Who knows how many more people are gonna die after that? I can't take any more blood on my hands. Now we're doing this. You've got to let me do this."


	6. Chapter 6

Sam and Dean stand behind Maria, holding flashlights and crowbars as she picks the lock on the front door of Estate Antiques. She manages to jimmy the lock in a matter of seconds, but she has been doing it for as long as she can remember. When they get inside, the Winchesters see countless mirrors all around the fairly large shop. The siblings look at each other in exasperation.

"Well…that's just great," Dean says sarcastically, pulling out the picture of Mary's body to look at the mirror. "All right, let's start looking."

They split up, Sam going off by himself and Dean following Maria. Dean tries in vain to get her to tell him her big secret. She finally gets fed up with his begging and leans in close to speak to him.

"Dean," she says quietly, leaning in closer to whisper in his ear. "My big secret is…a secret for a reason. If I tell you, this whole thing is for nothing and I will have to gank you instead of this Mary bitch. So shut up."

Dean leans back to look at his baby sister, a look of terror crossing his face momentarily before being replaced with narrowed eyes. Maria smirks at him and grabs his flashlight, turning to walk toward Sam. Dean follows her, calling to his brother.

"Maybe they've already sold it."

"I don't think so," Sam replies, his flashlight landing on a mirror that looks strangely like Mary's mirror. Maria comes up behind him, followed by Dean, who pulls out the picture again to compare it to the mirror in front of them.

"That's it," Dean sighs, taking back the flashlight Maria offers him. All signs of his former irritation with her are gone now, replaced with concern. "You sure about this?"

Maria sighs, taking the crowbar Sam offers her. She holds it like a baseball bat, then pauses, nodding once to Dean before looking directly into Mary's mirror.

"Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary," she says, but pauses, looking at her brothers, who both give her unsure looks back. She clears her throat, adjusts her stance and finishes. "Bloody Mary."

They wait. Nothing happens. Then Dean sees a light reflected in one of the many mirrors in the shop. He turns, handing his crowbar to Sam.

"I'll go check that out. Stay here, be careful. Smash anything that moves," Dean tells his younger siblings. Maria and Sam ready their crowbars as Dean walks stealthily toward the front entrance. He sees a headlight, curses under his breath, and walks to the door.

Maria and Sam stand at the ready, gripping their crowbars tightly. They hear a breath and turn to look at different mirrors. As they look at the other mirrors in the shop, they don't see Mary standing in her own mirror, looking menacingly at the younger Winchesters.

* * *

Dean is outside, facing the police who have piled out of their cop cars. He holds up his hands to them, in surrender.

"Whoa guys, false alarm, I tripped the system."

"Who are you?" the police ask.

"I'm the boss's kid."

"You're Mr. Yamashiro's kid?"

* * *

Back in the shop, Sam and Maria watch the mirrors for any sign of Mary. Sam sees her in a different mirror out of the corner of his eye and he swings his crowbar into it, smashing it to pieces. She's quick to dart into another mirror. Maria sees her in that mirror and smashes it with the crowbar, the pieces scattering all over the floor. Sam walks to the other end of the shop away from Maria, thinking he saw Mary in another mirror. Maria looks into Mary's mirror, not noticing Sam's absence, willing Mary to come into her own mirror.

"Come on," she urges quietly. "Come into this one."

Maria looks at her own reflection in Mary's mirror. It's as if her reflection has taken a mind of its own, tilting its head and looking at her menacingly. Maria's breath catches and she gasps for air. She looks into the mirror and sees a trickle of blood coming out of her eyes. She drops the crowbar and grabs her chest, her heart pounding erratically. Her reflection speaks to her in a harsh voice.

"It's your fault. You killed those people. You killed them all."

* * *

"Like I said, I was adopted," Dean tells the officers, trying to keep from looking guilty.

"Yeah," an officer says. They are standing in front of and behind Dean.

"You know, I just—I really don't have time for this right now," Dean says, punching one cop, backhanding the other, and knocking them both to the ground.

* * *

"You lied to your family. If you had done what your father said, they would still be alive," the reflection accused. Maria swayed, falling to her knees in front of the mirror. "Twelve people are dead because of you, all because you couldn't kill one monster. Was it worth it? Was love worth the lives of twelve innocent people!? How could you disobey like that?! How could you not finish the job!? You knew this would happen!"

Sam's crowbar goes through the mirror as Dean gets on his knees, lifting Maria into his arms and holding her.

"Maria," Dean says, trying to get her to come to. "Maria!"

"Dean?" she asks weakly. He pushes her hair out of her eyes as Sam comes up to her, looking at her face. "Sam?"

"God, are you okay?" Sam asks, seeing the blood that has trickled out of her eyes.

"Uh, yeah," Maria replies, starting to become more aware of what just happened. She shakes her head to clear it as Sam and Dean help her up.

"Come on, come on," Dean says soothingly. Sam pulls her left arm over his neck and Dean does the same with her right arm. They begin to walk out of the shop, but stop as they see Mary crawling out of the frame of her mirror and over the broken class littering the floor. She stands up and walks toward them. Sam, Dean, and Maria all start bleeding from their eyes under Mary's gaze, but Dean grabs a mirror and pulls it in front of the three of them. Mary is forced to look into the mirror and see her own reflection.

"You killed them! All those people!" Mary's reflection rasps at her. "You killed them!"

Mary starts to choke, grabbing at her heart. She dissolves into a pile of broken glass. Dean throws down the mirror he held as a shield and it shatters on the floor.

"Hey, Maria, Sam," Dean says, smiling now that the job is done.

"Yeah?" Sam and Maria reply in unison.

"This has got to be like…what? 600 years of bad luck?" he jokes. Sam and Maria chuckle weakly and Maria punches him lightly on the shoulder.


	7. Chapter 7

Sam and Dean are in the front of the Impala while Maria and Charlie are in the back. They pull up in front of Charlie's house.

"So this is really over?" Charlie asks the Winchesters.

"Yeah," Dean nods, "it's over."

"Thank you," Charlie tells them. Maria hugs her briefly and Sam and Dean each reach back to shake her hand. Charlie gets out of the car, but turns around when Maria calls to her.

"Charlie? Your boyfriend's death…you really should try to forgive yourself. No matter what you did, you probably couldn't have stopped it. Sometimes bad things just happen," Maria tells her. Charlie smiles at her weakly and turns to walk into the house. Sam reaches back to nudge Maria's shoulder.

"That's good advice," he says as Dean drives off.

"That's advice that you should take, Sam Winchester," Maria replies, smiling at her baby brother. Sam nods sadly.

"Hey, Maria," Dean says suddenly.

"Yeah?"

"Now that this is all over, I want you to tell me what that secret is," he tells her sternly. Maria looks at him sadly in the rearview mirror and sighs.

"I'll tell you," she says softly, "but you have to promise that this won't get back to Dad."

"Maria, what—" Dean begins, but Maria interrupts him.

"Promise me," Maria says more forcefully. "Both of you."

"Of course, Maria," Sam says. Dean just nods, pulling over on the side of the road and parking the Impala. He and Sam both turn in their seats to listen to her.

"It was when we were in Martinsville, Indiana," Maria says, her voice soft again. "That rugaru case. I met this guy James at school. He was really polite and sweet and at first I didn't think anything of it. But we ended up staying way longer than we usually stayed anywhere, so I really got to know James as a person and not just a guy I'd go out with once or twice before we had to move again." She pauses, taking a deep breath before continuing. "You remember. We were there for almost two months before Daddy even knew who the rugaru was. And I know two months isn't really enough time to fall in love, but I was 16, and he was the first guy who actually treated me like a person and not just the new girl.

"I don't know, it was a whirlwind romance or something. But James asked me to marry him. And I said yes. He gave me his grandmother's ring and everything," she continues, pulling on the chain hidden around her neck. On the chain is an antique diamond ring with intricate flowers engraved in the silver. She shows it to her brothers before shoving it out of sight down her shirt. "He wanted me to run away with him, and I seriously considered it; but I knew I could never leave you guys. You need me. So I told him that I couldn't, but I would marry him one day.

"But then I found out that he was the rugaru, and Daddy told me I had to kill him," Maria pauses again, fighting back tears this time. "But he hadn't transformed, and I couldn't kill him. I couldn't. I loved him. So I told him everything: how my family were hunters, and how he was the thing we were hunting, and how I was supposed to kill him," she stops, tears streaming down her cheeks now. "But we made a deal: I wouldn't kill him if he promised me that he would never transform. And he promised me that he would never transform if I would marry him someday. So I promised him; promised that I would marry him, and that he could take my virginity, because I really did love him that much. I only wanted him. So we promised each other. He left the town and I told Daddy that I killed James and that it was over.

"He wrote to me every chance he got. I sent letters to the little house he moved into three towns over, telling him where I would be and when, and he would always write back to me," she stops her story here, wiping at her eyes impatiently. She wills herself to stop crying, but fails miserably, crying even harder. So she continues, her words coming out between choking sobs. "But one night, he was in a bar when he overheard a hunter talking about some stupid bitch who wouldn't put out for him. James realized that the bitch he was talking about was me, and he defended me. He and the hunter ended up fighting outside the bar, and James just lost control and bit the hunter. He was so angry that this guy had insulted me that he completely lost it, and ate part of the guy. So James transformed. But somehow he was still able to write to me and to communicate coherently, but he wasn't my James anymore. He was a monster."

Sam and Dean look at each other quickly before Sam puts his hand on Maria's shoulder, rubbing it in small circles to comfort her. Maria sobs, sniffs, and then continues, her voice a bit stronger.

"Then six months ago, James was captured by another hunter who was avenging that guy James killed. He tortured him for days before finally killing him. That hunter also captured another guy, but it turns out he wasn't a rugaru; he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. So the hunter let him go. But before he did, James told him to send me this letter," Maria says, pulling out a worn, folded piece of paper from her jacket pocket. She hands it to Sam and Dean, who read the tattered, bloodstained letter together:

'My Maria,

I'm afraid this will be my last letter to you in this lifetime. The hunters have finally caught up to me, and I'm in a torture chamber as I write to you. I am so sorry. For everything. You mean the world to me, and I want you to know that I love you with everything that I am, monster or not. Forgive me, but please, never forget me. I love you.

Yours always,

James'

Dean and Sam look sadly at their only sister. Maria stops crying, thankful to finally get this off her chest. She smiles at them sadly before continuing.

"Dean, Sammy, I'm so sorry. I was so stupid. I should have listened to Dad. If I had, none of this would have happened."

"Maybe," Dean says, putting his hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "But I'm glad you told us. And don't worry. We won't tell Dad."

"Yeah," Sam chimes in, smiling at his sister. "You've been through enough."

"Thanks," Maria smiles warmly at them. "I don't know what I would do without you two."

"And we don't want to know," Dean says, starting the car up and driving down the road again.


End file.
